Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The willow is too close to the house.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Still Busy

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Still Busy

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… Harris’ appearance will resemble that of former First Lady Michelle Obama, who attended the Essence Festival in 2019 for an intimate conversation moderated by news anchor Gayle King about her New York Times best-selling memoir, “Becoming.” The celebrity conducting the interview with the vice president has not yet been announced.

Sources close to Harris told theGrio that she personally requested to attend the largest annual gathering of Black America with a focus on Black women. The timing of the request is, in part, due to her understanding of this moment of uncertainty on various levels that impact Black women and the community.

Some of those issues of uncertainty have placed Vice order President Harris at the forefront of the administration’s fight. Harris has become the face of the White House’s battle for legal reproductive care after last week’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — which the Biden White House has said is a top priority for the administration.

As a U.S. senator and now vice president, Harris has also led on the issue of Black maternal health and has emphasized the alarming data that shows Black women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy.

The last time Vice President Harris made an appearance at Essence Festival was in 2019 when she was a Democratic presidential candidate. She was one of a number of presidential contenders who understood the magnitude of this audience and worked for a direct connection to the community in exchange for their votes…


Reader Interactions

92Comments

  2. 2.

    zhena gogolia

    Ooh, good, open thread.

    (HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz today issued an open letter to businesses in states that are restricting the ability of women to make their own healthcare decisions, encouraging them to relocate their companies to Connecticut, where the rights of women are protected in state law and are among some of the strongest of any state in the nation.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Several items which recently caught the eye.

    From the unabashedly conservative Washington Examiner:

    Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s Tuesday testimony ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump’s political career. Trump is unfit to be anywhere near power ever again.
    [snip]
    Trump is a disgrace. Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024. No one should think otherwise, much less support him, ever again. Source

    It’s Wally, by golly.

    Llama blood may offer protection against COVID-19 and all of its variants, including the ever-changing omicron variant, a new study found.

    The findings also suggest that the potential protection llama’s blood can provide is not limited to just COVID-19 — it may extend to 18 related viruses, according to a June 28 news release on the study, which was published in the journal Cell Reports.
    [snip]
    The team’s research is similar to a prior study that found sharks may also protect against COVID-19 with antibody-like proteins found in their bodies that can stop SARS-CoV-2, McClatchy News previously reported. That study was published Dec. 16. Source

    “Kill the robot!” lacks the punch of the old standard.

    Two years from now, in baseball stadiums around the US, the umpire behind home plate might be little more than a mouthpiece for a robot. Major League Baseball plans to introduce robot umpires in the 2024 season, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN this week.… Source

  10. 10.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    He framed the change as a way to speed up games, but anyone who’s watched baseball the last few years will tell you that a machine would almost certainly call balls and strikes better than the humans do the Supreme Court does.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud: I bet robots could hit better, too, so why not have a batting robot?

    jesus, the human fallibility of everyone on the diamond is what makes it a game.

  13. 13.

    Ken

    @Gin & Tonic: why not have a batting robot?

    I believe they call that the “designated hitter rule”.

    I also eagerly anticipate the first accusations that the umpire robot was hacked.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Gin & Tonic:

    People aren’t going to accept losing a game because of a bad call.  Consequence of high definition TV and video recording technology, along with computer tech.

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    At 2:30pm, after his virtual meeting with the Democratic Governors, Joe Biden will depart for Camp David. I’m hoping he has a good, quiet weekend with his loved ones, and a light work schedule.

  20. 20.

    sdhays

    Be well, Senator:

    U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont underwent surgery Thursday after he broke his hip in a fall at his home, according to his spokesman.
    The 82-year-old Democrat fell Wednesday night in McLean, Virginia, a statement said. Doctors determined the best course of action would be to have surgery to repair the hip as soon as possible.
    Leahy spokesman David Carle said Thursday evening the senator is “comfortably recovering” at a Washington area hospital after successful surgery.

  22. 22.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    “Kill the robot!” lacks the punch of the old standard.

    I know it’s mixing cultural memes, but when I saw that line, the voice(s) in my head said/sang “Kill the wabbit!” in Elmer Fudd’s voice.

  23. 23.

    Spanky

    The WaPo has (re)discovered a blog favorite. How many months ago did we talk about this?

    Annie Lennox beguiled us in the MTV age. Now she calms us down online.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: I think changing to robot umpires will help hitters. The league-wide batting average should go up a few ticks when the robots take over. On the other hand, pitchers may sharpen their sliders and curveballs.

    But I’m still agin’ it. If human umpires were good enough for Abner Doubleday then they’re good enough for me! I think of baseball fields like they are my lawn. And I want those robots to stay off of my lawn!

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    TPM reports that Texas “educators” are proposing that second graders now be taught a certain part of history using the phrase “involuntary relocation” rather than of “slavery.”

    Great idea. And let’s refer to Greg Abbott as “insane, angry, evil, child-murdering fascist asshole” instead of “governor.” [Of course, my proposal has the advantage of being much closer to accurate.]

    I both wish, and don’t wish, Molly Ivins were still around. [“Don’t wish,” because I wouldn’t want her to suffer (mentally) from the actions of these RWMFs.]

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    ‘@Baud

    “There will be a pause in gameplay while the official MLB Roomba is sent onto the field to vacuum home plate.”

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy shoemangler: I used to think of Kathleen Parker as a second-rate, wannabe Peggy Noonan. I thought that was the meanest thing I could have said about anybody.

    Now I think I was too nice.

  32. 32.

    Ken

    @Baud: But that’s only one factor, I suppose.

    Yes, the robots also have a slight tendency to burst into flames and chase players around the field blaring “KILL ALL HUMANS”. But the engineers are pretty sure they know the cause and will have it fixed by 2Q 2024.

  34. 34.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: (Haven’t left the boat.)  Why would robots have a larger strike zone??  It makes no sense.  Plus, humans are good enough at calling balls 3″ outside or low as strikes, so evidence says that’s not a true fact anyway.  :-/

    Umpires aren’t the reason why the games take 4 hours.  It has  more to do with all the commercials on changeovers, pitcher changes, etc.

    Still, more technology in officiating is a good thing, IMHO.  Especially in the days of sports betting – there’s going to be too much temptation for humans to shade the outcome.  “The early line is when Umpire Jones is behind the plate, the home team OPS is +225!!”  :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I think batters will learn the batting zone better once it is standardized and certain. They may not chase fastballs and changeups that are out of the zone as much. Pitchers will have to rely more on their breaking balls.

    I will miss the heated arguments between the umpires and the players and coaches. They are kind of fun. Unlike the brawls occasioned by hit batters, these arguments are harmless theatre.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:Major League Baseball plans to introduce robot umpires in the 2024 season,

    There goes the time honored tradition of getting thrown out of a game for arguing balls and strikes. They are ruining baseball.

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    Umpires aren’t the reason why the games take 4 hours.

    Except when Angel Hernandez is umping, since he has to take frequent breaks to check the rule book, and also to find his new eyeglasses.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @Geminid:

    Unlike the brawls occasioned by hit batters, these arguments are harmless theatre.

    The ghost of Earl Weaver might beg to differ

  44. 44.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    Post columnist Kathleen Parker didn’t share Toobin’s forecast, to put it mildly. “If Chicken Little and Cassandra had a baby, they’d name him Jeffrey Toobin,” Parker wrote in a July 2018 column headlined: “Calm down. Roe v. Wade isn’t going anywhere.”

    Apparently Kathleen Parker forgot that Cassandra’s predictions were on target, but were regarded as hysterical and therefore ignored.

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    There goes the time honored tradition of getting thrown out of a game for arguing balls and strikes.

    As others (I think) have remarked: if only we could apply some (per)version of that to the ISCOTUS.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    This week’s events really knocked me out. Plus I hurt my back and can’t exercise as usual, and I’m at a place where my draft has to sit for a while, so my usual means of dealing with depression are unavailable. So, I somehow actually played my first game of Candy Crush, and omigod, I need an intervention

  48. 48.

    Kropacetic

    @lowtechcyclist: Apparently Kathleen Parker forgot that Cassandra’s predictions were on target, but were regarded as hysterical and therefore ignored.

    Looking for a t-shirt with the mame Cassandra and a printed image of HRC.

  50. 50.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    Heh…I just got my first Facebook 24hr ban.

    I reposted a BBC article on how the Russians are stealing Ukrainian grain and selling as Russian grain.

    What got me the lockout was my comment of  “Why am I not surprised that the Russians are thieves in addition to being war criminals?”

    Facebook says it was hate speech.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    @germy shoemangler: ​

    She blames Jackals.

    Who apparently are so fearsome that their en masse attempted murder of “Justice” Rapey McBeerface is what caused him to change his vote, to one to overturn Roe.
    Morons gotta moron, I guess.

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: There goes the time honored tradition of getting thrown out of a game for arguing balls and strikes.

    No, we’ll still have that, and I’ll bet the robot will be able to throw the players much further.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @kalakal: ​

    Outstanding!
    ETA: Of course, each ballpark will have to have a big black monolith behind home plate, or maybe beyond the CF wall, rising up after each HR (similar to the apple at Citi Field).

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    ‘@SFAW

    Sadly, nothing new under the sun. In the 19th century, New Jersey abolished the word but not the deed.

    …It was not until 1846 that New Jersey abolished slavery, but it qualified it by redefining former slaves as apprentices who were “apprenticed for life” to their masters. Slavery did not truly end in the state until it was ended nationally in 1865 after the American Civil War and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Source

  58. 58.

    Kristine

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    So, I somehow actually played my first game of Candy Crush, and omigod, I need an intervention.

    I’m hooked on a coloring app that I really should consider deleting from my phone. The only saving grace is that there’s no laptop version.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Misery GOP to the Texas GOP: “Hold mah beer, watch this!”

    Governor Mike Parson has signed a bill into law that will make it a felony to sleep on state-owned land.

    The bill has drawn wide criticism from unhoused advocates for the way it seemingly criminalizes homelessness. After one warning, anyone found illegally camping on state-owned land could face a $750 fine or a Class C misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 15 days in prison.

    The law authorizes the state attorney general to sue any municipalities that don’t enforce the ban. It further penalizes cities with rates of homelessness higher than the state average by taking away state funding for unhoused services.

    Republican legislators who supported the law insist this will be a good thing. “If it isn’t backed up by threat of criminal enforcement, people won’t get off the streets, and that is truly the intent of the bill,” Representative Bruce DeGroot told the RFT in May.

    Bruce DeGroot, a Chesterfield Republican who sponsored the bill in the House, says this is just “a first step” to getting Missouri’s unhoused off the streets.

    And into prison where they belong. Head? Meet desk.

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    I guess — to me, at least — there’s a difference between euphemising when the practice is still occurring, and trying to pretend it never existed, to soothe the delicate psyches of RWMFs’ minds.

    But I’m an asshole that way.

  65. 65.

    narya

    I used to love baseball . . . the summer after I finished grad school, I was unemployed (and remained unemployed for another year . . .), so I went to 20+ games at Wrigley. Single ticket meant I could often be very close to the field behind the opponents, and I always kept score. It was heaven. (My best seat that year was 8 or so rows behind home plate at a sold-out Phillies/Cubs game; it was clearly a scout/league seat, and I missed a little of the game til they released that ticket.) The relentless advertising, commercials, timing of everything for broadcast revenue, and selling of every available space is just depressing; capitalism at its most-benign worst. And robot umps is deplorable.

  67. 67.

    Kropacetic

    @OzarkHillbilly: Republican legislators who supported the law insist this will be a good thing. “If it isn’t backed up by threat of criminal enforcement, people won’t get off the streets, and that is truly the intent of the bill,” Representative Bruce DeGroot told the RFT in May.

    More people in prison will mean more money for private prison owners, who I’m sure looooove them some Republicans.

    Sure, it would be cheaper to build housing, but how will that further the end of repressing people for profit?

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    ‘@OzarkHillbilly

    State legislators have been known to catch forty winks in their respective chambers. Or even live and sleep inside their offices. Lock ’em up.

    //

  69. 69.

    Kropacetic

    @SFAW: Thank FSM there’s no airlock from which an arguing player can be ejected (or locked out).

    Taking the gravity out of baseball has REALLY changed the game…

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Plus I hurt my back and can’t exercise as usual, and I’m at a place where my draft has to sit for a while, so my usual means of dealing with depression are unavailable.

    I twisted my knee, and while I don’t exercise as much as I should, not being able to just go for a walk these past few days has not been helping my mood. Taking it easy again today (RICE) and hoping to be back to (near) normal tomorrow

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @SFAW: I like how the managers kick dirt on the umpire’s plate. I remember Nationals manager Davy Martinez doing that the first time he was thown out of a game. Martinez has a big round head and and it looked like a red-hot pumpkin. The 1st base umpire walked up and observed Martinez and the ump yelling at each other for a while. Then he calmly swept the plate clean, Martinez was ejected, and the game resumed.

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @narya: I hear you. I prefer spring training and minor league games these days. They still have a purity the bigs lost a while back.

  74. 74.

    Ken

    @SFAW: @NotMax: Slipping into paranoid mode here, I’ll speculate that the end-goal of this renaming is a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that the state’s program of stripping people of their rights and selling them for forced labor is OK — because the enabling legislation clearly calls it “involuntary relocation”, not the “slavery” or “involuntary servitude” forbidden by the 13th.

  75. 75.

    Kropacetic

    @Ken: I’ll speculate that the end-goal of this renaming is a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that the state’s program of stripping people of their rights and selling them for forced labor is OK

    See, I thought they were trying to get people to gradually passively accept slavery by allowing the minimum wage to languish.

  77. 77.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Meanwhile across the Mississippi in Illinois, we discovered during the pandemic that it’s a lot cheaper — in terms of social services, police call-outs, hospital emergency room use, food assistance, et cetera — to just provide homeless people with hotel rooms. Several hotels that went under during the pandemic have been bought and repurposed for short- and long-term residency.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @Kropacetic: It’s nice that business owners don’t have to pay their employees enough to live on, and can jerk around their personal lives with random re-scheduling of hours. But for true satisfaction, it doesn’t compare to being able to actually buy and sell them.

  79. 79.

    catclub

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    Why would robots have a larger strike zone?? It makes no sense. Plus, humans are good enough at calling balls 3″ outside or low as strikes, so evidence says that’s not a true fact anyway. :-/

    My understanding is that the definition of the strike zone is armpits to knees, but to me major league umps call anything above the belt as high. So robots using armpits to knees would be a big change.

  82. 82.

    Nelle

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m here to sing the praises of Voltaren, which I used when I lived in New Zealand.  It used to be prescription only and horrendously expensive in the States (hence, every trip mean bringing back tubes of it), but now is available over the counter here.  Not sure on the price.  I’m still using up the Down Under version.

  83. 83.

    Another Scott

    @catclub: The strike zone box on the TeeVee seems to be armpits-to-knees and most umps are pretty good (amazingly so) at getting it right.  But there are some real howlers most games that I’ve seen…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    Ken

    @SFAW: My cynicism level got topped-up this morning by Anne Laurie’s COVID thread, where “justice” Thomas is reported to have claimed the vaccines were developed using aborted children.  I figure if he’s that disconnected from reality, anything could happen.

  85. 85.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Nelle: It was cheap and readily available in Ukraine, so every trip of ours or our son’s entailed bringing back plenty for family and friends.

  86. 86.

    Kropacetic

    @Ken: Right, the wages were only step one. Fomenting desperation and a permissive view on contracts will be coming up next.

  87. 87.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The back pain has been a thing for about 3 months. My scoliosis is apparently not helping. But RICE is still good advice. Besides, I’m hot after being out in the humidity and heat.

     

    @Ken: This would not be appropriate for second graders, which is what that comment referred to, but high school students could read the chapter on George Washington as a slave holder from Ron Chernow’s biography. Washington was generally considered to be a good “owner,” but that chapter is sobering.

  88. 88.

    kalakal

    @Nelle: My wife would second your praise of Voltaren.

    Personally my experience of the stuff is that once on holiday she left a tube by the bathroom sink in the hotel. Next morning I was on autopilot and picked up a tube of what I thought was toothpaste…

    It may be great for muscle relief but it is never going to win a Michelin Star

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @narya: Baseball games are good to listen to on the radio. It’s laidback, without the visual bombardment of derivative stats and replays I get on television. A calming way to spend an evening.

    Unfortunately, radio broadcast games are harder to find now. Fifteen years ago, when I lived in the Shenendoah Valley, I could get both Nationals and Orioles games Baltimore was the “home” team before the Expos came down south and became the Nationals, and there were still plenty of  Orioles fans. Now there are no local stations broadcasting ball games. People get them off the internet.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:

    “Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024”

    Do they really have better? Different I’ll give them, but better?

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